ACROSS THE NAVAJO DESERT 61 



low cliffs, deep red, well-nigh blood-red, in 

 color. In the far distance isolated buttes lifted 

 daringly against the horizon; prominent among 

 them was the abrupt pinnacle known as El 

 Capitan, a landmark for the whole region. 



On the summit we were once more among 

 pines, and we saw again the beautiful wild 

 flowers and birds we had left on Buckskin 

 Mountain. There were redbells and bluebells 

 and the showy Indian paint-brushes; delicate 

 white flowers and beautiful purple ones; rabbit- 

 brush tipped with pale yellow, and the brighter 

 yellow of the Navajo gorse; and innumerable 

 others. I saw a Louisiana tanager; the piny on 

 jays were everywhere; ravens, true birds of 

 the wilderness, croaked hoarsely. 



From the cliff crest we travelled south through 

 a wild and picturesque pass. The table-land 

 was rugged and mountainous; but it sloped 

 gradually to the south, and the mountains 

 changed to rounded hills. It was a dry region, 

 but with plenty of grama-grass, and much of 

 it covered with an open forest of pinyon and 

 cedar. After eight hours' steady jogging along 

 Indian trails, and across country where there 

 was no trail, we camped by some muddy pools 

 of rain-water which lay at the bottom of a deep 

 washout. Soon afterward a Navajo family 



